World Bulletin / News Desk

U.S. Defence Minister Chuck Hagel has confirmed that seven nations are currently providing arms to the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces to fight off attacks by militants from the self-styled 'Islamic State' group.

Albania, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Italy, France and the U.K. are all supplying the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of northern Iraq with weapons in order to defend themselves by IS advances, Hagel said.

However, KRG president Masoud Barzani said that Iran was also providing the Kurdish peshmerga with arms after meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

Security in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Erbil has been tight ever since IS militants backed by Sunni Arab tribes took over Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, on June 10.

Many Kurds from Mosul have fled north, seeking protection in the relatively calm Kurdish autonomous region, while peshmerga forces have moved into the Turkmen city of Kerkuk to stop IS fighters from advancing in the oil-rich city.